"Tiny (aka Lisa Gray–Garcia) is a poverty scholar, revolutionary journalist, PO' Poet, spoken word artist, welfareQUEEN, lecturer, Indigena Taina/Boriken/Irish mama of Tiburcio and daughter of Dee and the co–founder and executive director of POOR Magazine/PoorNewsNetwork. POOR is a grassroots, non–profit, arts organization dedicated to providing extreme access to media, education and arts for youth, adults and elders struggling with poverty, racism, disability and border fascism locally and globally. Tiny is a teacher, multi–media producer, and author of 'Criminal of Poverty: Growing Up Homeless in America,' published by City Lights."

"Lisa Gray-Garcia, activist for the homeless and author of Criminal of Poverty: Growing Up Homeless in America:

'When poor people try to get support from the government, we have to do endless amounts of begging and pleading. We're told we're lazy or we use bad judgment. But when it comes to corporations making bad decisions, corporate welfare gets framed as a valiant effort to save the country. This comes down to how we frame poor people vs. how we frame sanctioned business people.'"

Lisa Gray-Garcia (or "Tiny") has been struggling with poverty and homelessness all her life.

It's hard to figure out exactly how to begin a memoir about being poor. There are just so many places to start. When Gray-Garcia located a moment to open her memoir, "Criminal of Poverty: Growing Up Homeless in America" (City Lights Books; $15.95; 287 pages), it didn't come easy.

Holding it down for the homeless in San Francisco and the Bay Area is no small feat-- a fact well known to author Lisa Gray-Garcia and her mother Dee Gray who run 'Poor Magazine', part of the PNN (Poor News Network) and a landmark publication ran by the homeless and low-income community.

Eviction, police discrimination, incarceration, and an unrespondent government, are all problems tackled in the activism and writing of the magazine's staff in their daily battle with homelessness and its ills.

Author Lisa "Tiny" Gray-Garcia's life turned upside down at age 11 when her mother lost her job and she had to live on the street. Gray-Garcia talks with Farai Chideya about her life on the streets, which she chronicles in the book Criminal of Poverty: Growing Up Homeless in America.

POOR Magazine journalists explain why they seized the stage at the United States Social Forum...

From the POOR News Network: Poverty, Race, Disability, Youth and Indigenous Scholars from POOR Magazine travel to the US Social Forum to realize a new world of media production..By Any Means Necessary

P.O.O.R.
.Scholaz til we die
The Revolution begins with I
QUEENNANDI 2007

The morning air in the Tenderloin was sharp. Small hidden daggers were embedded in the 9:00 am breeze. Micro-business people were trading products, elders and youth of color were convening and poverty survivors were consuming and acquiring different forms of substances to get through another day in Amerikkka. . . .

"Tiny's business card has a two-line description of her job: 'Co-editor of Poor Magazine & Poor News Network (PNN), Revolutionary journalist; welfare QUEEN, Daughter of Dee.' None of these positions pays. Tiny, who is 37, makes her living as a communications director for a nonprofit, which is not on her card."

"Lisa Gray-Garcia, communications director for Justice Matters, said that what was happening in the West Contra Costa Unified School District was representative of the impact of NCLB throughout California.

'It's a majority minority community—similar to many communitites in California today—that are being negatively impacted by No Child Left Behind,' Garcia said.

She said that Justice Matters chose the West Contra Costa Unified School District as a model community mainly because its demographics reflect those of most urban school districts in the state."